


It's Cross-Stitching, Not Cross-Checking

by rhysiana



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Cross-stitching is like Legos, Frogs' Stitch 'n Bitch, Gen, Needle arts for relaxation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 16:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11108367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: Dex finds himself teaching various members of SMH how to cross-stitch.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago, I took prompts on Tumblr, and des-zimbits asked: "Can you pls write one of the SMH doing fiber arts?" I was happy to oblige.

“I’m sure they’ll let me back into Annie’s by now,” Nursey insisted to Chowder as he knocked on Dex’s door. “The sign incident was ages ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure,” Chowder said vaguely, distracted as he was by a text from Cait.

“It’s open,” Dex called.

Nursey opened the door and stuck his head into Dex’s room. “Hey, bro, you wanna go with me and C to…” He trailed off as he actually registered what he was seeing. “What are you doing?”

Dex was seated cross-legged on his bed, some kind of cloth in one hand and a threaded needle in the other, an open box filled with a rainbow of other threads next to him. He looked down at his lap and then back at Nursey like he was a moron. “Cross-stitch? What does it look like?”

Nursey came the rest of the way into the room so he could get a better look. “I wouldn’t know, man, my sister did ballet and my mom doesn’t do crafty shit.”

Chowder looked up from his phone and followed Nursey in, bouncing over to Dex’s side cheerfully. “How cool! What is it?”

“Uh, [a fractal](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nordicneedle.com%2F3697&t=YTY1OWNlZmZlN2MzZmFkNDE4NjdiMjhiOThkZjhiM2M5NGU0NmRiNCxuMWh6RHd6SQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AA8nl1dXcQ42hQ4qj_cW_Jg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frhysiana.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156685884958%2Fcan-you-pls-write-one-of-the-smh-doing-fiber-arts&m=1).”

“You can make fractals out of thread?!”

Dex cracked a smile. “Yeah, sure.” He handed the fabric on the hoopy thing over to Chowder, who ran a finger over the surface as he studied it intently.

Nursey pulled out Dex’s desk chair and sat down on it backwards, resting his chin on his folded arms. “Why do you do it?”

Dex shot him a suspicious glance. “Because it’s soothing and methodical and more portable than Legos.”

“Huh?” Nursey said, tipping the chair forward to get a better view of the piece in Chowder’s hands so he could figure out the connection between this and Legos. Dex’s arm shot out and caught the back of the chair just before he could overbalance.

“You’re a hazard, Nurse.”

Nursey just grinned. “No, but seriously, how does it work?”

“Yeah!” echoed Chowder.

Dex narrowed his eyes. “You’re not just chirping me? Because I do have better ways to spend my time this afternoon.”

Nursey held up his hands. “Not chirping, I swear. If there’s a thing that actually helps _you_ chill, Poindexter, I figure I should know more.”

Dex rolled his eyes and muttered, “Oh my god.” Then he swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat so they could both see. “Okay, look, you have a chart, okay?” He held up a clipboard with a diagram full of tiny squares on it. “Each square has a symbol in it telling you what color thread to use. It’s basically just like building Legos, or paint by number, or a jigsaw puzzle. You just count the squares and fill them in and at the end you have the picture. It’s not hard.”

Nursey and Chowder looked between the chart and the half-finished fractal design on Dex’s frame.

“I dunno, bro, it looks mad complicated to me,” Nursey said.

Dex waved a dismissive hand. “That’s just because fractal designs are weird. I… look, do you guys actually want to know how to do this?”

“Sure!” said Chowder. “This looks fun!”

Nursey nodded.

“Okay, hold on.” Dex leaned over and fished a plastic bin out from under his bed. Inside were a bunch of paper charts, some booklets, and a number of packages of folded cloth. “Here, I’ve got some easy bookmark designs that I printed off because they were free. They’re always good for, like, Christmas presents and shit.” He shuffled through the papers until he found two, looked briefly at their directions, and then picked out one of the packages of cloth before he shoved the bin back under his bed.

“So you can see on the instructions here,” he pointed, “it tells you what size cloth to use—that means how big the squares on the cloth are, basically—and how big the piece will be. So you find the right size cloth and the cut a piece out that’s like, I dunno, for a bookmark it doesn’t really matter that much, but let’s leave like two inches extra all the way around so you’ll be able to hold it easier…” He cut two rectangles off the larger piece of cloth and handed one to each of them, along with a chart sheet.

“See how there’s a darker line marking the center of the design? You want to work out from there. So fold your cloth to find the center and…”

Dex spent the next hour walking them through the basics of putting the cloth on a frame, learning how to read a chart, and how to stitch a simple x.

“There are two schools of thought on this, one where you do all the right-leaning legs in that color first and then trace back adding the left-leaning legs, and another where you make the full x in every box, but it doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re consistent about which leg is on top every time,” Dex explained.

And then he opened the box of thread again and helped them find the colors they’d each need. Nursey was impressed by how organized it was, but also artistically appalled when he realized all the colors were numbered. Dex rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Nursey, DMC makes every color known to man, there has to be some way to find shit quickly. If you want to organize them alphabetically by poetic color description, do it in your own box. I’ll just stick with grouping by color family and product number, _like every other sane person in the universe_.”

Nursey grinned and accepted his handful of thread cards.

“Can I do mine in teal?” Chowder asked. Because of course.

Dex took a look at his pattern and then started sorting through the box. “Yeah, this only uses a few colors anyway, we’ll just need to substitute shade for shade…”

Nursey let their discussion fade into the background as he started trying to figure out how to start his design. It was a strip of Celtic knotwork, but frustratingly, it wasn’t just all the same color everywhere. He had to actually pay attention to make sure he was counting up and over the right number of squares to place the next x.

He was so absorbed in the process, he stabbed himself in the finger when Chowder poked him in the shoulder. “Nursey! It’s time for dinner!”

“Ow. What?” Nursey stuck his finger in his mouth and blinked, noting that it was much darker outside Dex’s window than he’d expected. He rolled his shoulders as they made it known he’d been sitting hunched over for way too long. “Holy shit, how’d it get to be so late?”

Dex shrugged. “Told ya. Soothing.”

“Can we work on it more tomorrow?” Chowder asked. “Can you teach Cait? Oh, wait, no! I want to make her a Valentine’s present! I should keep it a secret!”

“Yeah, sure, we can do it tomorrow. I mean, you can take yours back to your own rooms, it’s not like you have to leave it here.”

“But what if we mess up? We need you to show us how to fix it!” Chowder objected.

Dex smiled. “I don’t think it’ll take very long for you to figure it out, C, but it’s fine.”

Nursey gave a lazy smile of his own as something occurred to him. “You starting a Frogs’ Stitch ’n Bitch here, Dex?”

Dex shot him what was, for him, an extremely mild glare and then gave a sharp grin. “Hey, it got you to shut up for two whole hours. Works for me.”

Nursey laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plus a short follow-up with Jack, who seems like he'd appreciate the methodical nature of the craft as well.

Jack was ready for the NHL in every way a person could be ready. He had been training for it literally his entire life, and even taking the slightly less direct path than he’d initially intended had arguably only made him more prepared. The schedule was grueling and intense and he was on top of it. His rookie season was already stellar.

What he was not prepared for was how much _time_ there was to be bored while in transit. Sure, they’d had fewer games in college, but all his free time in between those games was taken up with classes and homework and papers and readings and practice. Now he just had practice, and all he had to do on the bus or plane was whatever he wanted to do. It was… weird. It was boring. He’d already read all the books he’d promised himself he’d find time to read one day, and he didn’t actually _want_ to read another history book right now. Or watch another documentary.

He’d tried reading some of Snowy’s airport bookstore mysteries, (which Snowy’s sister had apparently termed “action-adventure romances for men” and they all knew because now Snowy wouldn’t refer to them any other way,) but the characters were too ludicrous and he’d lost interest after the first three. (Though he did still listen and smile when Snowy and Poots did dramatic readings. He was considering sending a copy of the first book to Holster.) 

He was starting to find it very frustrating. But then:

“It’s so cute, Jack! Dex has all of the Frogs, well, not the actual Frogs, who are now the Tadpoles, but your Frogs, you know, he has them all cross-stitching! Now, I don’t know what that weird thing is that Dex is working on himself, though he seems to like it, and I’m certainly no artist, so who am I to judge, but Chowder and Nursey are working on some nice bookmarks, and Chowder is just so excited at the idea he could do a shark next. They sit together on the bus and work on their projects, and it’s just _precious_.”

“So it’s pretty portable?” Jack asked, intrigued.

“Seems to be.”

“Huh.”

And then the talk turned to what Bitty had baked that day and eventually, at Jack’s insistence, what homework he actually had to do, and the subject dropped. But Jack didn’t forget.

**To: w.poindexter@samwell.edu  
** From: j.zimmermann@samwell.alumni.edu  
Subject: cross-stitching 

Dex,

Bitty mentioned that you taught Nursey and Chowder to cross-stitch as something to do on the bus. Could you point me at some resources to maybe teach myself? Looking for some roadie projects as well.

Thanks,  
Jack

PS - Maybe don’t tell Bitty, yeah?

A few hours later, Jack had links to a number of online tutorials, both written and video, as well as some suggestions of what to look for in ordering a beginning pattern. (“Since you’re doing it on your own, just get a kit. I gave the guys here everything they’d need, but that’s because I had it on hand.”)

He grinned when he found [the perfect thing](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.123stitch.com%2Fitem%2FMill-Hill-Cook-Up-a-Storm-Cross-Stitch-Kit%2FST15-0102&t=ZGVlN2MxZDc1NmUwNzdkMzFiNmQxNjAwM2MxM2NjNjZiYzZkMjIyMyxyRVc3ZDNHcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AA8nl1dXcQ42hQ4qj_cW_Jg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frhysiana.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156957066058%2Fsome-more-smh-boys-doing-cross-stitch-for&m=1). They had a whole string of road games coming up, and with luck, he thought he might be able to finish the whole thing before Bitty’s birthday.


End file.
